Haitian police raid slums, execute 10, neighbors say

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Police raided a slum building in Haiti’s capital and executed at least 10 people, most students, neighbors told a human rights lawyer Wednesday, the second day of an ineffective strike called by loyalists who want the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Police denied the report.

Lawyer Judy Delacruz said she saw trails of blood where neighbors told her police had dragged the bodies of those killed along an alley behind Ruelle Estime in the Fort National neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.

Haiti’s interim government has said police would act to end weeks of violence that has killed at least 61 people – not including those reportedly killed on Tuesday. It started Sept. 30, when police reportedly fired on protesters demanding Aristide’s return from exile in South Africa, killing two. The beheaded bodies of three police officers were found the following day.

Residents “said police killed 10 people, and some say 13, including a young school girl of 13 years old,” Delacruz told the Associated Press.